no title

Editorial

Consumers need help

Credit-reporting agencies should improve error-correction process

About our Editorials

Dispatch editorials express the view of the
Dispatch editorial board, which is made up of the publisher, the president of
The Dispatch, the editor and the editorial-writing staff. As is the traditional newspaper
practice, the editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the newspaper.
Comments and questions should be directed to the
editorial page editor.

Also in Opinion

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

Saturday May 11, 2013 6:19 AM

Consumers can feel that no one is listening when they try to correct errors on their credit
report.

Judy Thomas, one of the people whose stories were highlighted in the award-winning
Dispatch “Credit Scars” series, which ran throughout 2012, should at least feel some
satisfaction in being able to tell her story to Congress this week. She fought a years-long battle
to clear her credit history of items that scuttled her efforts to get a home loan and her ability
to co-sign for her daughter’s student loans.

“I have fought to be Judy Thomas now for the past 14 years,” the Elyria resident told members of
a Senate subcommittee this week, referring to her struggle to remove information belonging to
others from her own credit report. “I was basically held captive by these credit bureaus, and I
couldn’t do a thing about it.”

Thomas recalled her years-long “nightmare” in trying to fix obvious errors on her reports that
she clearly had nothing to do with. The credit-reporting agencies mixed her files with those of a
Utah woman named Judith Kendall; despite there being information from this person in a distant
state and having two other Social Security numbers listed on her report, Thomas found it impossible
to get the agencies to correct their own errors.

Thomas’ situation may be particularly egregious, but unfortunately it is not unique. The Federal
Trade Commission released a study in February which found that at least 40 million people have
errors in their credit files. For their stories,
Dispatch reporters analyzed nearly 30,000 complaints filed with the Federal Trade
Commission and attorneys general in states around the country. Consumers complained of errors
ranging from misspelled names to being mixed up with relatives or strangers.

President Barack Obama and a number of lawmakers are to be commended for calling for reforms in
the way that credit-reporting agencies handle reports of mistakes. Many consumers have said that
credit agencies have been slow to act, or have refused to make changes even when it’s obvious that
a person’s credit report contains someone else’s name or Social Security number. And for every
complaint filed, there are many other errors that go unnoticed or unreported to the trade
commission.

At the state level, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine also is working with about two dozen other
states to investigate credit-agency practices. Though the investigation continues, DeWine says it’s
become clear that consumers are being victimized by credit-reporting agencies that aren’t doing
enough to prevent and correct damaging errors.

“Our review so far confirms the horror stories and problems consumers face with the industry,”
DeWine told
The Dispatch. “People doing bad things don’t like to change unless they are pressured to
do so or shamed into it.” DeWine vowed to file a lawsuit, if needed, to compel the companies to
make changes to the way they handle errors and consumer complaints.

Stories like those of Thomas and many others like her are clear examples of consumers being
victimized by bad business practices. Demanding fair treatment for consumers like her is an issue
that should be easy for lawmakers to support.